MacFarlane, Seth

Seth MacFarlane , the creator of Fox’s scathing animation comedy series Family Guy, American Dad and The Cleveland Show, constantly lets his Star Trek fandom be known on screen and off—and so it’s no surprise he twice appeared as walk-on engineer Ensign Rivers during Enterprise.

MacFarlane, a 1973 native of Kent, Conn., turns up as an unnamed engineer on the NX-01 in “The Forgotten” and then, a year later, gains a character name on-screen while aboard sister ship Columbia in “Affliction.”

Aside from creating his series, MacFarlane is known for doing the voices of many of the series’ choice stars, including the Griffin family’s three males and neighbor Glenn Quagmire.Broadening his range, he directed his first live-action film in 2012’s Ted, and has announced plans to revive Carl Sagan’s landmark Cosmos space science series for dual release on Fox and National Geographic channels. MacFarlane has also indulged his music favorites and released a Grammy-nominated album of 1950s American swing standards titled Music is Better Than Words.